Eprosartan mesylate was developed successfully by SmithKline Beecham Corporation in 1997, and marketed in Germany in 1998 under the trade-name Teveten and in the United States later in 1999. Eprosartan mesylate, as an angiotensin II receptor blocker, is an antihypertensive drug of the latest generation. Eprosartan mesylate is potent to lower systolic and diastolic pressures in mild, moderate and severe hypertensive patients, and is safe and tolerable. Eprosartan mesylate is rapidly absorbed when administrated orally, with a bioavailability of 13% and a protein binding rate of 98%. The blood peak concentration and AUC (Area Under Curve) can be elevated by about 50% in patients with liver and kidney dysfunction, or fullness after administration, and can be elevated by 2 to 3 folds in elderly patients. Eprosartan mesylate has a structure shown as follows:

U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,351 discloses a method for preparing eprosartan mesylate using Eprosartan and methanesulfonic acid in isopropanol (U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,351, Example 41 (ii)). However, it is found when following this method for preparing eprosartan mesylate in industry, an esterification reaction can occur between eprosartan and isopropanol and the following two impurities can be generated:

In addition to the above two esterification impurities, the salifying method provided by the above patent is prone to produce isopropyl mesylate. Considering currently known potential risk of gene toxicity of methylsulfonic acid ester on human as well as the stringent requirements of methylsulfonic acid ester from the Europe and the America authorities, it is important to produce eprosartan mesylate in a non-alcohol solvent during the process of producing eprosartan mesylate, since it avoids the formation of methylsulfonic acid ester and the residue thereof in the final product. Since the dosage of eprosartan mesylate is high, it is particularly important to strictly control methylsulfonic acid ester in eprosartan mesylate.
In addition, for the above salifying method, solid eprosartan is suspended in propanol at a low temperature, then methanesulfonic acid is added, about ten seconds later a great deal of eprosartan mesylate precipitate is obtained. Therefore, solid eprosartan may be embedded by the precipitated eprosartan mesylate. Since isopropyl alcohol has a high viscosity at low temperature, a heavy filtering operation burden is needed to obtain solid from isopropanol, and the obtained solid contains quite an amount of isopropanol.